Bowchies Bonanza

The sweetest pet businesses are those home-grown around the love of a dog. In the case of Bowchies, the inspiration is provided by Maceo, the mutt with the melting mug who provides all the product-testing for the colorful collars, leashes, harnesses as well as the useful people stuff such as dogpark bags with pockets galore. Dog Lady has met Jenn Johnson, the creative flair behind Bowchies, who turns out in earnest at dog shows and crafts expositions to tout the line. Johnson lavishes love and thought into the products, in the same way she takes exquisite care of Maceo, her muse.

No Broken Bax With Yaktrax

Before she got Yaktrax, Dog Lady was a heap on the sidewalk whenever she had to walk darling dog in ice or snow. She fell easily; her muscles ached mightily. After Mr. Dog Lady gave her a pair of Yaktrax, winter life has new giddy meaning. The yak is back.

Wearing Yaktrax, Dog Lady defies nature. She strides confidently on any ice floe and can keep up with darling scampering over any snowy plain. She can stoop to pick up the poop without worrying if her feet will slide out from under her.

Yaktrax is not paying for this endorsement. Indeed, Dog Lady only promotes products on her Web site that capture her fancy. And Yaktrax has definitely captured her feet.

Makin' A List, Checkin' It Twice

Dear Readers,

"Ask Dog Lady" not only flies high on the Web, but the column is syndicated to many newspapers and magazines. (For a complete list, write Dog Lady). Recently, this column about what to give your dog for Christmas appeared in Cleveland's Plain Dealer. Dog Lady thought you'd get a kick out of the list -- and a few ideas.

A Bright Idea

Dog Lady lives by the adage that the simplest ideas are often the best ideas. This is especially true with dogs. All the fancy duds and treats don't mount up to a hill of beans as far as they're concerned. Dogs like simple -- being naked and eating basic stuff. And dog owners like simple too -- especially as concerns the safety and well-being of them and their animals. The PupLight is a simple idea whose time as come. This is a collar with an LED light to put on the dog when you walk at night. Brilliant.

Muttropolitan

“The New Yorkers” by Cathleen Schine is a dog lovers’ novel – weaving its complexities about dogs and lovers who live in a variegated village on a Manhattan block. The book’s characters seem fresh, despite their age-old burdens of isolation and longing.

Jody is a schoolteacher who saves her best self for high thread-count sheets and her beloved pit bull, Beatrice. Everett is an emotionally pinched middle-aged chemist whose inner joy tumbles out when he baby sits for a puppy. And George is an aimless twentysomething bartender whose career path reveals itself when he tames a lunging Rottweiler. These are just a few of the people – and pets – you meet in Schine’s absorbing tale of modern manners.

Dog Lady recommends this wholeheartedly – for the graceful writing, the brisk storytelling, the piquant insights, and the dogs of all descriptions. Beatrice, Howdy, Kaiya, Jolly and their fuzzy ilk leap off the pages as harbingers of happiness and hope.

You could easily click to Amazon and buy "The New Yorkers." Better yet, amble over to your favorite independent bookshop and purchase a copy. Along the way, you might run into your true love -- on two legs or four. Schine's memorable book celebrates these sort of yip-yap miracles of mating.

Shaggy Muses

The shocking largesse of Leona Helmsley, the late real estate baroness who bestowed $12 million on her Maltese named Trouble, makes us reckon with how much our dogs are worth. Presumably, these creatures don't know shinola from s***. Yet, many of us believe our dogs are priceless.

The writers Emily Dickinson, Emily Bronte, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Edith Wharton penned their best work while in the company of priceless hounds. In "Shaggy Muses," author Maureen Adams does a marvelous job of showing how the dogs made a difference in the creative lives of these women.

We learn, for instance, that Emily Bronte, who wrote the dark "Wuthering Heights," beat her mastiff Keeper bloody when he dared to sleep on the indoor beds. Wharton, in her later years, was daffy for her Pekinese Linky to the point where this devotion offended friends and colleagues. Woolf grieved deeply for her spaniel, so much so the death may have hastened her own demise.

"Shaggy Muses" is written with scholarly care and style. Dog Lady, who derives sustenance from her own shaggy muse in her modest creative pursuits, could not put this down.

Singin' In the Rain

This imaginative contraption, ergnomically correct with a clear plastic panel so you can see your dog, is quite cute and so much more comfortable for your darling than a raincoat.

Dog Lady's Handbags

Dog Lady gets the willies thinking about all those plastic bags filled with dog poop littering landfills for eternity. It's a good thing to pick up after your dog, but it's not such a good thing to wrap it in plastic. A neat solution is to use degradable bags. This site peddles sells cool bio-bags online. The Wag Bags are brightly colored mitts that smell of citrus. The bags are pricey but if money is no object when it comes to scooping Number 2, go for it.

Their Business Is Picking Up!

Doggie Walk Bags, a California family business, has been providing baggies for poop pickup for years. Dog Lady gives them a shout-out because they remain independent and dependably reliable. Their bags -- blue, pleasantly scented with handles to tie so you don't have to sniff the stuff -- are also environmentally friendly. The bags come in a variety of packages as well as in dispensers for clean up in cities and parks. Doggie Walk Bags supplies the city of Sacramento, which is why the California capitol smells lovely. Have a gander around the Doggie Walk Bags Web site.

Paint By Numbers

Kim Santini is a Michigan artist on a mission. She promises to paint one dog portrait a day throughout 2007. So far, she's amassed nearly 100 paintings (can you believe the year speeds by so quickly?) of dog mugs taken from photographs snapped through the years at "parks, farms, dog events, and family gatherings." Look through these and you develop an admiration for Santini's talents. She captures a uniquely compelling canine countenance in every picture. You can see the paintings and check out Santini's progress by visiting her blog where she also describes her subject and the artistic techniques.
Santini sells the portraits. However, there is something more admirable going on here -- reminding Dog Lady of the "Julie/Julia" project when a writer spent a year concocting all of Julia Child's recipes in her small New York apartment, fetchingly blogging about it, and winning a big book contract. Santini's painting project shines with creativity and a winsome spirit of enterprise.

Pants For Dogs

The title of this unique dog business says it all -- kind of. Yes, yes, Dog Lady knows we all pant for dogs and Dog Lady disagrees with forcing dogs to wear pants. However, if your aging dog is incontinent, poorly trained, or if your unaltered pet messes without motive, then these pants will serve a very practical purpose and even make a fashion statement. The designer of Pants For Dogs prides herself on using interesting fabrics and comfortable, sturdy shapes for handcrafted belly bands for boys and panties with lace for girls. Need this all explained for you? Pants for Dogs has a nifty FAQ, which lays it all out.

The able seamstress at Pants for Dogs also makes reversible fleece ponchos for dog owners. Dog Lady has one of these fantastic garments and loves the sumptuous fabric, warmth, double-stitching, pocket on the front to hold treats, keys or poop bags, and the durability.

Eeew! Poo!

Fellow dog devotees, wouldn't you agree that picking up the poop is the most degrading part of our job? So how come more of us don't use degradable bags?Despite the momentary yuck-factor of swooping to scoop, the benefits to the environment accrue. When she first started picking up, Dog Lady used ordinary plastic bags as you might find wrapping your morning newspaper. Then, she started having second thoughts. She imagined a mountain of plastic bags filled with petrified dung lasting until eternity. Be good to the earth and use degradable bags to pick up the poop. Dog Lady is hooked on Mutt Mitts.

Broken Biscuits

Do dogs care if biscuits come in shapes? Of course not. Their motto? Any way you cut it, a crunchy thing is cookie enough for me. Andy Joseph, the proprietress of Kaxlan's Vermont Treats, bakes her goodies with all sorts of healthy stuff, including garlic by the truckload. Naturally, she sells her Woofs and Wags cookies whole. However, during the process of pressing out bones, there's lots of overage and awkward pieces left behind. Joseph calls these "modern art bones." She wants to donate the pounds of pieces to animal shelters, humane groups, worthy causes. She will even ship the "modern art bones" for free. For more information, contact Joseph.

Beautiful Beds

Mod Dog Designs offers sumptuous settees for setters, retrievers, terriers or any mutt lucky enough to curl up on these lush fabrics. Oh sure, dog beds are a dime a dozen, but Mod Dog beds are a different breed. These lounges are handmade with care and thought. They blend with the most elegant human decor, so your darling will not feel left out in the cold.

Your Dog Oughta Be In Pictures

Reflection Films offers an intriguing possibility to make your pet a star. Using pictures or video, with music selected by the client, filmmakers Geoff Birmingham and Rachel Jellinek weave together moments of a dog's sweet life into a "Pet Story" so you can always remember your baby as a superstar on DVD.

Birmingham and Jellinek immortalized their dog Ace in such a vivid, affectionate way that the curly-coated retriever becomes an immortal presence, chomping on his favorite carrots or splashing into a summer pond. Sadly, Ace died three weeks after Birmingham and Jellinek finished his pet story. Now, the dog lives forever on disc. Snippets from the Ace film can be viewed online and present a good picture of Reflection Films and its creative services.

Portrait Gallery

Pauline Gledhill is an animal portraitist with a special knack for catching the soul in a dog's eyes. See for yourself at Gledhill's site where she has posted her portraits. There's not a lot of whimsy or artistic license in her work, but Gledhill of the U.K. seems remarkably capable of bringing a dog's face to light -- for the ages.

Let Them Eat Cake

Why shouldn't our precious hounds enjoy sweetstuffs made just for them?
The Honeybark Bakery, where Geri Sim is the chef de cuisine, turns out treats for dogs using scrumptious ingredients, such as bananas, apples, pears, flax seed, and cinnamon. Of course, there are the usual doggy must-have comestibles, such as beef and cheese. Check out the Honeybark selection of homemade goodies. When Dog Lady fed these to her dog, he gobbled without discretion.These are dog treats guaranteed to put you in a quandry about whether or not you should steal a bite.

A Thrill On Blueberry Hill

Blueberry Crisps are the cool summer snack for dogs to devour and humans to wonder if it would be OK to take a bite. The Crisps come cozily packaged in a reusable cardboard berry carton lined with blue tissue paper. They taste delish if Dog Lady's dog can be trusted as a food critic. Darling turns up his nose at many boring biscuits, but these Blueberry Crisps got him all excited. Dog Lady has not stooped to stealing one of her dog's cookies, but she can report the cinnamony smell of Blueberry Crisps is heavenly. The crunchy treats are made with blueberries and honey and promise lots of healthy antioxidants. There's a picture of a collie on the boxtop.

Wag Tail Farm, the Vermont maker of B's Blueberry Crisps, lists retailers that stock the cookies. You can also look for them in your favorite dog emporium (probably not Petsmart and Petco).

Pet Portraits

Kathy Weller is an artist with a creative flair and a deft touch when it comes to painting pooches. Check out her colorful creatures. Unlike many other dog portrait artists who paint by number, Weller uses her imagination -- and yours -- to bring the subjects to life. You can imagine hanging one of these artistic works in a prominent place and being very proud of your own Mona Mutt Lisa. Life Magazine recently singled out Weller and her whimsical woofies as one of 14 national canine treasures. And the artist is not only gifted pet portraitist but a born blogger.

Don't Need It? Buy This!

Dog Lady tips her chapeau to Itzadog, the makers of the Quiet Spot dog tag silencer. The imaginative Itzadog marketeers have packaged their product -- a little pouch that secures your dog's tags so they don't jingle -- with tabloid screaming slogans. "You need this product!" the packaging shouts while a bug-eyed cartoon dog smiles with rabid ferocity. Oh, and Quiet Spot eliminates that dread condition -- tag tarnish!!! Good try Itzadog. And, hey, it worked. Dog Lady bit, and bought, although her dog could care less.

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I Got Love In My Tummy

The dog that feasts on treats from Dogyums might well be whistling the bubble gum '60s song. Yet, here's a site that offers much more than homemade dog biscuits. There are jewels for the dog lover and lots of special things such as imaginative gift baskets and much to warm the pocketbook and the heart of the dogged.

Ah Chew!

Let's face it, our puppies have an oral fixation. They love scooping up gross stuff in their mouths and chewing on anything they can find including our shoes and coffee tables. To stop your dog from chewing inappropriately, it is important to keep alternatives on hand -- and in hand when your pup starts chomping on your hand. Ruff-Puppy teethers are a gummy solution. They provide cold comfort to dogs cutting their first teeth. The imaginative chew toys also bestow comfort to elderly canine gums. Check out the wildly-colored teethers and all the other inventive products from Ruff Doggie.

Halter Tops

Dog Lady recently bought her sweetie a comfy, well-fitting harness from a way-too-expensive trendy dog store in Arlington, Va. Dog Lady was most unhappy with the store, staffed by people gossiping among themselves and talking on cell phones, but she was delighted by the harness even if she suffered through shoddy customer service.

Decorated with little squirrels and featuring soft straps that adjust in every which way, the step-in harness more than makes up for the indignities at the trendy dog store. Darling looks so dandy in his rodent-festooned halter. Indeed, if Dog Lady had known that a catalogue of Up Country dog fashions was available online, she would have just cut out the middleman.

Up Country, located in Rumford, Rhode Island, offers appealing designs of dog collars, harnesses and accoutrements. You can view the products online and email or call an 800 number to order.

Fleecy Tug Toys

As a doting dog keeper, you know the happy feeling of bringing home a new squeaky toy to your darling. After sniffing the plush intruder suspiciously, darling tosses it around a few times and then begins a campaign to de-stuff it. Soon, the new toy lies in ruins, its guts trailing all over the floor and its squeaker exposed.

Now there's a solution with Schnoodleware -- fleecy tug toys for dogs. Schnoodleware doesn't squeak, but when darling bites down, the canine teeth are cushioned by softness and coziness. Entrepreneur Annmarie Stasio doesn't promise that Schnoodleware Toys for Dogs are indestructible but they wear well.

Bowled Over

When Dog Lady goes on vacation, she packs a separate suitcase for her dog, filled with his favorite blanket, toys, treats, kibble, and canned food. Ooops, she forgot the bowls. Here's a very handy solution for dogs who eat on the run -- the Pup 'N' Pak. It's a shoulder bag that turns into a feeding and watering station.

Bitch's Brew

Sal Corio, a comic and doggie-preneur, invented his Elliot's Hound Sauce when his sweetie was sick and wouldn't eat. Sal cooked up some delicious doggy pan gravy and poured it over Elliot's food and -- voila! -- the dog supped and survived. Spurred by his pet's cure, Curio called in some canine experts to help him concoct a healthy savory sauce in lamb, beef and chicken flavors to spice up humdrum kibble. The result is "Eliot's Hound Sauce," which comes packaged in an elegant glass bottle. Your own dog may love to go on the Sauce.

http://www.houndsauce.com

Faux Paw Productions

Dog Lady gets many requests to link stuff on her Website. She only does so if the product is something she's tried or has otherwise captured her (or darling dog's) fancy. The bright pottery and other arty artifacts offered for sale at Faux Paw Productions are very cool. Faux Paw even offers custom bowls with your pet's face painted on them, so your muncher can nibble through the kibble down to his or her nose.

http://www.fauxpawproductions.com

Nedra Made It

Dog Lady admits a soft spot for dog-loving entrepreneurs like herself. Nedra Rezinas is a pooch pamperer in Portland, Ore. who makes her mark with unique products for canine-inclined adventurers. Nedra's "Augie Bag" is a marvelous tote with pockets for toys, treats, poop bags and even the poop. Check out the Augie Bag as well as other useful products.

http://www.nedramadeit.com

Amo Non Lavare Canem (Dog Latin)

Dog Lady never wants to put on airs. Even she has problems dealing with her dog. The most nettlesome? Giving the dog a bath. It's become a soap opera. Dog Lady is shrinking violet when faced with her white dog's red-alert refusal to get into the tub. And she's tried everything -- from attempting to take a shower with darling, to luring him into the tub with freeze-dried liver chunks, which got awfully soggy and smelled awful. On the bath matter, Dog Lady has thrown in the towel. Sweetheart gets groomed every few weeks. The rest of the time he's dirty around the edges. But Dog Lady may try to grapple her grubby canine one more time at Laundromutt, a self-service dog wash and lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The idea is a great one in this booming age of trendy dog businesses. Laundromutt has stainless steel tubs, shampoo, blow dryers and a sitting area where you can watch Animal Planet if you have to wait. There's also treats and toys for sale.

http://www.laundromutt.com/

A Wee Solution

The issue is indelicate but wrenching for many owners of older dogs who have to face the ammoniated music in the morning when their incontinent dog leaks in the night. The elderly dog is often more uncomfortable than the human keeper because the animal is distressed by thinking it has somehow made a mistake. Dog Lady's darling does not have the problem so Dog Lady has not tried this product. However, these Pooch Pads seem a sensibly humane and hygienic way to ease your dog's embarrassment and discomfort.

http://www.poochpad.com/

Water Dogs

Pretty watercolor prints of dogs on cards. You can personalize the cards or send a picture of your dog for a customized print.

http://www.dogandbutterfly.com/waterdogs.html

Two Dog Press

A charming online shoppe for books, toys, accessories and treats. Two Dog Press, located in Maine, offers selective wares with a homespun spirit.

http://www.twodogpress.com/twodogpress/shopping.html

Polka Dog

A good resource for rovers in Boston's South End, the neighborhood where dogs definitely have the upper paw. Polka Dog Bakery features healthy treats, premium food, stylish accoutrements, various playthings, behavior classes, and oodles of joy. Dogs are most welcome to step in and sample the wares. You can also order over the Internet or by mail.

http://www.polkadog.com